The right forum for boycott debate

Priyamvada Gopal (A shameful silence, October 5), referring to the legal opinion obtained by the Universities and Colleges Union, says its details are "shrouded in mystery". The opinion is clear, that the proposed boycott may, in law, be discriminatory, and that the raising of the matter of a boycott within the UCU may be outside UCU's aims and objects. Discussion of Israeli policy in UCU is unaffected, and the non-boycott elements of the motion passed at its congress can be implemented. The advising legal team was led by Anthony Lester, who campaigned for 30 years to give us the Human Rights Act, and who in 1997 was Liberty's Human Rights Lawyer of the Year. The relevance of Gopal's words "suppression of dissent", and of her reference to an "Israel lobby" in another country, is unclear.
Dr Jeffrey Boss Stroud, Gloucestershire

Thank you Priyamvada Gopal for your powerful article on the way western writers and intellectuals (and the media) are so selective in their criticism of violations of human rights and freedom. They seldom find reasons to criticise Israel for its appalling record of inhumanity. It seems they have an inbuilt resistance to discuss it or publicise it as, after all, the problem is the creation of the western powers. I find it even more surprising and sad that so little is heard from Arab writers and intellectuals from Morocco to the Gulf states. Prof As'ad Abu Khalil - a tenured professor in the politics department of California State University, Stanislaus - has suggested that they are probably suffering from "nostalgia for colonialism". Manzur Haque London

Priyamvada Gopal bemoans the decision by the UCU to drop the proposed boycott of links with Israeli universities. The author then seeks to link this with examples of restrictions on the freedom of speech. She does not concern herself with the freedom of speech of Israeli academics, of course, unless they happen to support her thesis. However, there is ongoing debate by academics in the media, both in this country and in the US. This is where such arguments should be heard. Indeed some weeks I wonder how the Guardian would fill its column space if there weren't at least two articles from academics on this very subject. Terry Nemko Pinner, Middlesex

No one has shut down debate on academic boycotts. There are umpteen forums in which such debates can be, and should be, pursued. All that has happened is that someone has had the common sense to realise that we do not pay our subscriptions to the UCU to finance such debates. Denis Noble Oxford University